Cozad residents woke this morning to a weather phenomenon as a heat burst rolled through town. Temperatures rose 20 degrees in a matter of minutes while winds reached speeds of 75 miles per hour.

Many had no idea what was happening. Mike Steinwart, Cozad Street Department, said it came quickly. "No warning, not even a whistle, I thought it was a tornado. The way people explained. I thought it was a tornado, but they say it was a heat burst."

Trees were thrown into houses and cars but no injuries were reported. There was at least one close call. Nancy Wurst said her son just missed injury as a tree crashed into his car. "He was about a minute from being in the car he was standing at the door getting ready to come outside to go to work. If that would have happened one minute later he could have been in the car."

American intelligence agencies may soon be able to access the most private and personal details of British citizens.

Under an agreement being negotiated between the EU and Washington., U.S. agencies including the CIA will be allowed to view details of bank accounts, travel plans and even the sites individuals visit on the internet.

A secret document giving details of the agreement has been leaked to the New York Times.

The deal will make it easier for American law enforcement organisations to obtain private information from banks, credit card firms and other companies - as well as from government offices.

In the past, companies handing over such details ran the risk of breaching European data protection laws. But these laws are expected to be relaxed under the new agreement.

American security organisations insist the information is necessary to prevent further atrocities such as 9/11.

But the deal came under attack from former shadow Home Secretary David Davis, who resigned as an MP to force a by-election on civil liberties issues.

He said: 'Given this Government's disastrous failure to protect data, whether losing 25million child benefit records in the post or laptops containing sensitive security information, the public will have real concern about the wholesale transfer abroad of its personal data, under a set of diluted safeguards negotiated in Brussels.'

Shami Chakrabarti, director of pressure group Liberty, said: 'We can barely trust our own authorities with sensitive personal information. What redress will we have on the other side of the Atlantic if our details are lost of abused?'

Secret negotiations have been going on for nearly 18 months and sources in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security expect the data agreement to be approved and go into effect before President George Bush leaves office next January. One source at the department said that as a result of the deal, the U.S. was likely to ask for full details on everyone visiting from Europe.

This will include all visitors' financial details - their bank statements, salaries, who they write cheques to and receive money from and what they buy with credit cards - and what internet sites they visit on their home computers.

The information involved is already available on the massive computerised databases kept by private companies that closely monitor each individual's credit rating for the financial industry and by the major computer search engines that are used to browse the Internet.

At this point there are privacy laws that restrict unauthorised access to these databases but the new agreement would oblige the companies that keep them to hand over the information to Washington.

It will result in a flood of information crossing the Atlantic but the American intelligence agencies can handle it with super-computers that are programmed to pick out only those reports that contain what the U.S. considers to be suspicious activity.

Consider the following - - let's take a situation where the U.S. government needs money. The U.S. doesn't just issue United States Notes, which, of course it could. These notes would be dollars backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. No, the U.S. doesn't issue dollars straight out of the U.S. Treasury.

This is what the U.S. does - - it issues Treasury Bonds. The U.S. then sells these bonds to the Fed. The Fed buys the bonds. Wait, how does the Fed pay for the bonds? The Fed simply creates money "out of thin air" (book-keeping entry) with which it buys the bonds. The money that the Fed creates from nowhere then goes to the U.S. The Fed holds the U.S. bonds, and the unbelievable irony is that the U.S. then pays interest on the very bonds that the U.S. itself issued. (With great profit to the private owners of The Fed - - Ed. Note) The mind boggles.

The damnable result is that the Fed effectively controls the U.S. money supply. The Fed is not even a branch of the U.S. government. The Fed is not mentioned in the Constitution of the United States. No Constitutional amendment was ever created or voted on to accept the Fed. The Constitutionality of the Federal Reserve has never come before the Supreme Court. The Fed is a private bank that keeps the U.S. forever in debt - - or I should say in increasing debt along with ever rising interest payments.

How did the Fed get away with this outrage? A tiny secretive group of bankers sneaked through a bill in 1913 at a time when many in Congress were absent. Those who were there and voted for the bill didn't realize (as so often happens) what they were voting for (shades of the shameful 2002 vote to hand over to President Bush the power to decide on war with Iraq)."

WASHINGTON, June 29 (AFP) Jun 29, 2008The United States gave a major boost to covert operations against Iran with Congress's approval last year of President George W. Bush's request for 400 million dollars, a US magazine reported Sunday.The move reveals a "major escalation" in clandestine operations aimed at destabilizing the Islamic republic's religious leadership amid concerns over Tehran's nuclear ambitions, said the report in the New Yorker magazine citing former military, intelligence, and congressional sources.

Among the methods being used are increased US support for minority and dissident groups and intelligence gathering about Iran's nuclear facilities, said the article, written and reported by Seymour Hersh.

Although such covert activities in Iran are not new on the part of the United States, the magazine said the "scale and the scope of the operations in Iran, which involve the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), have now been significantly expanded."

The Congress approved Bush's request for funding late last year, according to sources with knowledge of the top secret Presidential Finding, which by law must be issued when covert intelligence operations get underway.

The Presidential Finding is conveyed to a select group of Congressional leaders and their intelligence committees, otherwise known as the Gang of Eight, the report said.

"The Finding was focused on undermining Iran's nuclear ambitions and trying to undermine the government through regime change," and involved "working with opposition groups and passing money," the report said, quoting an unnamed "person familiar with its contents."

The report said some lawmakers were skeptical of the administration's aims, and there was "a significant amount of high-level discussion" about the Finding before the funding was eventually approved.

The Bush administration's request for funding came around the same time as the December 2007 release of the National Intelligence Estimate, which said the Iran halted nuclear weapons work in 2003.

The NIE was downplayed by Bush and other officials who called for urgent action to counter the Iranian nuclear threat.

Washington suspects Iran is secretly working to build an atomic weapons arsenal. Iran insists its nuclear activities are for civilian energy purposes.

The Pentagon has drafted a secret plan that would send U.S. special forces into the wild tribal regions of Pakistan to capture or kill Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, but the White House has balked at giving the mission a green light, The New York Times reported today.

The Bush administration, which has seven months left in its term, gave the go-ahead for the military to draw up the plan to take the war on terror across the Afghan border and into the mountains of Pakistan where bin Laden is believed to be hiding, according to the newspaper.

Intelligence reports have concluded that bin Laden has re-established a network of new training camps, and the number of recruits in those camps has risen to as many as 2,000 in recent months from 200 earlier this year.

Although the special forces attack plan was devised six months ago, infighting among U.S. intelligence agencies and among White House offices have blocked it from being implemented, the Times reported.

The Bush team would like to leave office next January having put bin Laden, the man behind the Sept. 11 attacks, behind bars or in his grave.

But sending U.S. forces into Pakistan would be controversial and risky. The rugged mountain area is populated by bin Laden sympathizers, hurting the chances that such a raid could succeed. It would also trigger a diplomatic outcry from the Pakistani government.

The United States has conducted a series of aerial drone attacks on Taliban and al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan, killing several key Qaeda figures and narrowly missing bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman Zawahiri, in one strike. But an attack earlier this month killed several Pakistani border guards instead and has made Pakistan less willing to allow U.S. strikes on its territory.

The Taliban of Pakistan, who are close al Qaeda allies, have grown alarmingly stronger in Pakistan’s lawless border areas and threatened the regional capital of Peshawar last week.

Pakistan’s new coalition government, which has made a series of truces with the militants in recent months, was forced over the weekend to launch an offensive to push the militants back from the outskirts of Peshawar.

Pakistan called the operation a success, even though none of the heavily armed militants in the area were reported killed.

Pakistan announced Sunday that Bush had invited Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to Washington next month. High on that visit’s agenda is the question of whether Pakistan can restrain the Taliban by itself or whether the United States could decide to take action in the tribal areas.

A separate report said the Bush administration has also begun a “major escalation of covert operations against Iran … to destabilize the country’s religious leadership.”

The charge was made by veteran journalist Seymour Hersh in the current issue of The New Yorker magazine.

Hersh claims that elite American commando units are operating inside Iran and that Congress has authorized $400 million for the covert operations.

The article claimed that U.S. special forces have been conducting clandestine operations against Iran since last year and have seized members of the Iran commando force al Quds and taken them to Iraq for questioning.

The U.S. ambassador in Iraq Ryan Crocker denied the report.

“I’ll tell you flatly that U.S. forces are not operating across the Iraqi border into Iran, in the south or anywhere else,” he said in an interview from Baghdad Sunday.

In a speech on the House floor, Congressman Paul suggested that the US is inching toward an ‘endless struggle’ similar to the Iraq war.

“In the last several weeks, if not for months we have heard a lot of talk about the potential of Israel and/or the United States bombing Iran. Energy prices are being bid up because of this fear. It has been predicted that if bombs start dropping, that we will see energy prices double or triple,” said the Republican.

“To me it is almost like deja vu all over again. We listened to the rhetoric for years and years before we went into Iraq. We did not go in the correct manner, we did not declare war, we are there and it is an endless struggle,” he told a nearly empty House chamber.

“I cannot believe it, that we may well be on the verge of initiating the bombing of Iran,” said the war veteran.

The 72-year-old former presidential candidate then blasted what he called the ‘virtual Iran war resolution’, which is soon to be considered by the House of Representatives.

“This resolution, House Resolution 362 is a virtual war resolution. It is the declaration of tremendous sanctions, and boycotts and embargoes on the Iranians. It is very, very severe,” Paul said.

Supported by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), House Resolution 362 (and the Senate version Resolution 580), known as the ‘Iran War Resolution’ can be considered a means of imposing harsher sanctions as well as a naval blockade restricting exports to the oil-rich country.

This bill, which was introduced at an AIPAC annual policy conference, has gained 208 co-sponsors in the House and 29 in the Senate. It will likely be put to a vote after July 4.

“The fear is, they say, maybe some day, [Iran is] going to get a nuclear weapon, even though our own CIA’s National Intelligence Estimate has said that the Iranians have not been working on a nuclear weapon since 2003,” continued the 10-term congressman.

The US and Israel accuse Tehran of making efforts to produce nuclear weapons; Iran insists its nuclear program is directed at peaceful purposes.

The most recent UN nuclear watchdog report on Tehran’s nuclear program, however, has conceded that there is no link between the use of nuclear material and ‘the alleged studies’ of weaponization attributed to Iran by Western countries.

“This is unbelievable! This is closing down Iran. Where do we have this authority? Where do we get the moral authority? Where do we get the international legality for this? Where do we get the Constitutional authority for this?” asked Paul.

FISCAL COMMENTARY:Follow the Money? God forbid.Why was the cashing out of billions of dollars just before the 9/11 attacks never investigated?by Jim Hogue

Had an investigation been done into the crime of failing to file the “currency transaction reports” in August 2001, then we would know who made the cash withdrawals in $100 bills amounting to the $5 billion surge.It's been over six years since 9/11, but U.S. regulatory entities have been slow to follow through with reports about the complex financial transactions that occurred just prior to and following the attacks. Such research could shed light on such questions as who was behind them—and who benefited—and could help lay to rest the rumors that have been festering.

Warning bells about anomalies in the fiscal sector were sounded in the summer of 2001, but not heeded. Among those who has since raised questions was Bill Bergman. As a financial market analyst for the Federal Reserve, he was assigned in 2003 to review the record of July and August of 2001. He noticed an unusual surge in the currency component of the M1 money supply (cash circulating outside of banks) during that period. The surge totaled over $5 billion above the norm for a two-month increase. The increase in August alone was the third largest single monthly increase since 1947, even after a significantly above-average month in July.

When reviewing the record of July and August of 2001, Bill Bergman noticed a $5 billion surge in the currency component of the M1 money supply—the third largest such increase since 1947. Bergman asked about this anomaly—and was removed from his investigative duties.Surges in the currency component of M1 are often the result of people withdrawing their cash to protect themselves lest some anticipated disaster (such as Y2K) befall the economy. In January of 1991 a surge was recorded (the then second-largest since ’47), which could be attributed to “war-time hoarding” before the Iraq I invasion, but could also be attributed to financial maneuverings and liquefying of assets relating to the BCCI enforcement proceedings.

Bergman points out that the August 2001 withdrawals may have been, to a large extent, caused by the Argentinian banking crisis that was occurring at the time. However, he raises the point that no explanation has yet fully answered the important question: Why was the cashing out of billions of dollars just before the 9/11 attacks never investigated? It’s possible that the answer to this question is also the answer to the other follow-the-money questions surrounding 9/11; and despite an embarrassing heap of evidence, neither the press, nor Congress, nor any agency with investigative responsibility has done its job on our behalf. On the contrary, their inaction might reasonably be construed as a cover-up.

Bergman "followed the money," including developing a framework for working with money-laundering data and “suspicious activity” reports for monitoring and investigating terrorism. The questions he asked about what happened during the summer of 2001 should have led to investigations, which should have resulted in the prosecution of those with foreknowledge of the attacks.

Those who follow the history of the 9/11 fact-finding movement know that there is a laundry-list of unanswered questions that are just as compelling as those put forth by Bergman. And there is also a laundry-list of whistle-blowers who have been fired and subsequently ignored. So it is not at all surprising that Bergman was removed from his investigative duties, and that his concerns were not publicly addressed.

Bergman's supervisor instructed him follow up on an unanswered question he had raised pertaining to an August 2, 2001 letter from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve to the 12 Reserve Banks. This letter urged scrutiny of suspicious activity reports. Bergman learned of the pervasiveness of the warnings of the 9/11 attacks, and wondered how thoroughly these warnings had permeated the financial system.

In this capacity as Federal Reserve investigative point-man, and with his money-laundering portfolio being guided by his supervisor's directive, he asked the Board why they had issued their August 2, 2001 directive, and whether this related to any heightened intelligence of a terrorist threat. His position was then eliminated, and a crucial investigation was terminated before it could even begin.

Another 9/11 Commission Misrepresentation

Footnote 28 of the Staff Monograph on Terrorist Financing from the official 9/11 Commission Report states that the National Money-laundering Strategy Report for 2001 “didn’t mention terrorist financing in any of its 50 pages.”

True? No. The NMLS Report mentions it 17 times. One gets the impression that the commission staff (under Philip Zelikow) was trying to paint the picture that there wasn’t a lot of co-operation between those involved in counterterrorism and the banking regulators in 2001. Why do they paint this picture, inasmuch as the contrary is the case? In fact, anti-terrorism was an important element of the National Money Strategy, and it was included and emphasized in its Report annually. It may have been part of the reason why the August 2, 2001 letter urging scrutiny of suspicious activity reports was issued in the first place.

In turn, the billions in currency shipments of July and August 2001 are completely omitted in the 9/11 Commission Report. I make bold to point out that the official story-line is that the attacks were accomplished by "the evil-doers" on a shoe-string budget with little money changing hands. Therefore, according to Zelikow et al., it is pointless to look at large flows of money in an investigation of the attacks. That makes perfect sense—unless you happen to have a brain.

To state the obvious, there are two reasons why Zelikow et al. made the false statement regarding there having been no references to terrorism in the National Money-laundering Strategy Report. One reason could be to justify and encourage more scrutiny (legal or otherwise) of small transactions generally, e.g. via USAPA, and the other could be to establish (read: invent) a reason for missing the evidence pertaining to the attacks. ('Transactions too small. No one could find.') And since the real money trail points to foreknowledge within the financial community at large, and, possibly, the Federal Reserve specifically, the "low-budget terrorism" story-line that the 9/11 Commission had established needed to be protected.

If such a lack of attentiveness to a financial transaction of $5 billion goes unnoticed in August 2001, then a reason had to be established for this lack of attention. And Bergman’s attentiveness to the Board of Governor’s August 2 letter was the fly in the ointment, as this letter proves that the Board was indeed attentive to suspicious transactions, even very, very large ones. Bergman’s question of “Why” is therefore key to yet another avenue of inquiry.

All the News that’s Permissible to Print

Note that a few dollars sent to an Islamic charity could warrant arrests, investigations, front-page stories, and, sometimes, torture and many years in jail. That's Propaganda 101: 'Large amounts of money do not fund major acts of terrorism. Small amounts do. Small amounts covered the 9/11 tab, therefore large amounts didn’t.' The news coverage, creating high-profile prosecutions for relatively small transactions, reinforces this scenario.

With this in mind, we suggest that the reader follow the story of Mark Siljander (major coverage) on the one hand, and also follow the Times UK reports from Sibel Edmonds (verboten in the US mainstream press) on the other hand. Edmonds told me recently of the major foreign media outlets that had offered to report her story. Not one major outlet did so in the US. R.T. Naylor suggests, in his wonderful book Satanic Purses, that any major terrorist event that involves a lot of money is 'state terrorism,' and this is independently confirmed by Sibel Edmonds’ statements as to the enormous sums changing hands at the time of the 9/11 attacks. I suggest that her testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee (Leahy and Grassley) gave the lie to the official financial myth of 9/11. If Bergman had been allowed to continue his investigation, I suggest that he would have uncovered the same thing. Note that the drug money and other illicit transactions described by Edmonds occurred during the same time period, and the amounts in the billions are comparable.

The Law

To members of the constabulary: the operable statutes are 1) The 1970 Bank Secrecy Act that imposed new financial reporting requirements to facilitate the tracing of questionable transactions and 2) the 1986 Money Laundering Control Act that criminalized the act of money-laundering. Also operable, and of particular relevance in a historical context, is the 1917 Trading With the Enemy Act that was relied upon in October of 1942 to seize the assets of “Hitler’s Bankers in America,” Union Banking, (involving bank vice president Prescott Bush under his father-in-law and bank president, George Walker).

The law is not always followed, and the required “currency transaction reports” are sometimes not filed. The 9/11 Commission Report and the National Money-laundering Strategy Report for 2001 did not identify those who are involved with large cash transactions. Had the paperwork been done in August of 2001, or an investigation done into the crime of failing to file the “currency transaction reports,” then we would know who made the cash withdrawals in $100 bills amounting to the $5 billion surge.

Information about what transpired took years to develop after the fact. For example, the Federal Reserve fined United Bank of Switzerland and Riggs Bank in 2004.

Mr. Bergman states that he doesn’t want to be a dog barking up the wrong tree, but the authorities, apparently under orders from our top officials, are preventing a standard investigation and the most obvious prosecutorial methodology from going forth.

Jim Hogue, a former teacher, is now an actor who tours his performance of Ethan Allen. He also operates a small farm in Calais, VT. His seminal articles about Sibel Edmonds and CIA Whistleblower “Miss Moneypenny” may be found in this newspaper's archives.

Bill Bergman currently works in Chicago as an equity analyst for a private sector firm. From 1998 to 2004 he was a senior financial market analyst for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, where his areas of expertise included Insolvency Issues in Derivatives Markets, Money Laundering, and Ethics and Payment System Policy. He holds an M.B.A. in Finance and an M.A. in Public Policy from the University of Chicago.

The King Assassination and CNN Disinformation By Dr. William F. Pepper

As a friend and colleague of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., during the last year of his life, James Earl Ray’s attorney, for the last ten years of his life and, finally, lead Counsel for Dr. King’s family in the 1999 civil trial which brought forward evidence from 70 witnesses over 30 days in Memphis, I am compelled to comment, for the record, on the most recent documentary on the assassination by CNN which is being aired on an ongoing basis. The fact that my participation in the program was used to give it some credibility makes this comment even more relevant.

It is one matter to distort the truth of how this great American prophet was taken from us, but quite another to have mainstream media perpetuate disinformation on matters of such public importance to the citizens of the Republic. An expert witness, at the King family civil trial, William Schapp, set out the historical use of government disinformation through mainstream media, dating back to the 1920’s.

The first half of the program was dedicated to James and his background and history. While the program notably failed to provide a motive as to why this escaped convict would even consider such an act, and racism had been excluded by the earlier Congressional investigation, it was hinted at by a reference of his refusal to go to a work farm attached to the Missouri prison because of the number of blacks in that facility. In fact, James was afraid of becoming tied into drug activity which was going on there and having his term extended. He would regularly roll dice with black co-workers when he worked in a shoe factory.

The program went on to allege that he and his brother robbed a bank in Alton, Illinois, on July 12, 1967. This, allegedly, was the source of his funds, so he did not need the handler he identified as Raoul, who we would eventually identify. I don’t know the former detective they brought on camera, but closer to the time, 1978, I spoke with the president of the bank and the Chief of Police, and both told me that the Ray brothers had never been suspects, and in fact they believed that they knew who did the robbery, but did not have enough proof to charge them. Further, they confirmed that despite mainstream published reports they had never been interviewed by the Congressional investigators, the FBI or the reporting media’s investigative reporter.

In the second half of the program, the disinformation ran rampant; just a few examples illustrate this point. The failure to match the throw down rifle to the death slug became “inconclusive”. What does that mean? There was no ballistics match. The gun was not and could not be regarded as the murder weapon, and introduced into evidence as such. Yet it remains mounted in the Civil Rights Museum as precisely that; now with CNN’s blessing. We had four witnesses who saw figures in the bushes (one New York Times reporter, Earl Caldwell), two observed the shooter coming down over the wall, another (Reverend James Orange) saw smoke kicked up and rising from the bushes, and another who saw the owner of the Grill which backed on to the Lorraine Motel, rush, from the bushes, past her into his kitchen still carrying the smoking gun he took from the shooter. CNN converted all of this evidence into one “unreliable” witness. The next morning that crime scene was cut down and cleaned. The CNN report supported the official story that the shot came from the bathroom window. It was well known that we had a reliable witness who saw the bathroom door open, with the light on, minutes before the shooting, and no one inside. It was empty, of course, because the shot came from the bushes. A clip from a CBS interview with a roomer who saw someone running down the hall was cut off just before the reporter showed him a photo of James, and he said that was not the man he saw. The man carrying the throw down bundle of items James was told to leave in the room (which also contained the throw down gun) dropped them in a doorway and got into the second Mustang and drove away. We had a witness who identified that Mustang as having Arkansas plates. It was parked south of James’s Mustang. We had two witnesses (one from the Corps of Engineers) and signed statements, evidencing that James drove away from the rooming house about 20 minutes before the shooting. All of this was known and put under oath, and ignored by CNN.

Perhaps the most egregious action involved the use of the aged Captain of the fire station, diagonally opposite the Motel. When I learned from military sources that a psy ops unit of two photographers was on the roof of the station, and one of my investigators interviewed both army photographers, I sought him out ten years ago. At that earlier time he, testified under oath that he put them on the roof, watched them unpack their still cameras and then left them there. He never saw them again. Now 9 years later CNN puts on this old man who is clearly confused about what he did back then and may not even have remembered his courtroom testimony. They use that interview along with a photograph of the roof taken at a time when the soldiers would have had ample time to disappear, to assert that they were never there. It gets worse. When I suggested to the CNN reporter that they interview the Captain, he said he was dead. They obviously did not want me to speak with him.

There was more of the same, but surely, this is enough to constitute an insult to the memory and legacy of Dr. King, an injustice to James Earl Ray and a violation of every tenet of fair and objective reporting.

William Pepper was the attorney for the King familyIn the Memphis civil action against Loyd Jowers and others,known and unknown, for causing the wrongful death of DrMartin Luther King Jr...

WASHINGTON - A former Army scientist who was named as a person of interest in the 2001 anthrax attacks will receive $5.8 million to settle his lawsuit against the Justice Department. Steven Hatfill claimed the Justice Department violated his privacy rights by speaking with reporters about the case.

Settlement documents were filed in federal court Friday. Both sides have agreed to the deal, according to the documents, and as soon as they are signed, the case will be dismissed.

The deal requires the Justice Department to pay $2.825 million up front and buy Hatfill a $3 million annuity that will pay him $150,000 each year for 20 years.

"Our government failed us, not only by failing to catch the anthrax mailers but by seeking to conceal that failure," Hatfill's lawyers said in a statement. "Our government did this by leaking gossip, speculation, and misinformation to a handful of credulous reporters."

The statement also blamed journalists for not questioning the motives of the government's statements or its tactics.

The Justice Department said the settlement was in the best interest of the nation.

"The United States does not admit to any violation of the Privacy Act and continues to deny all liability in connection with Dr. Hatfill's claims," Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said in response to the settlement.

Five people were killed and 17 sickened by anthrax that was mailed to lawmakers on Capitol Hill and members of the news media in New York and Florida just weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

After the attacks, Attorney General John Ashcroft called Hatfill "a person of interest" in the investigation and stories by various reporters followed. Hatfill had worked at the Army's infectious diseases laboratory from 1997 to 1999. The anthrax attacks remain unsolved.

The settlement likely also means that former USA Today reporter Toni Locy will no longer face up to $5,000-a-day in fines in the case. A federal judge ordered her to identify the officials who discussed Hatfill. When she said she couldn't remember, the judge ordered her to identify all her sources on the anthrax case.

She challenged that order, but a federal appeals court has yet to rule in the case. Because Hatfill's lawsuit is being settled, Locy's case will probably be dismissed as moot, though that will be up to the appeals court. Hatfill's lawyers told the court Friday that they no longer need her testimony.

"I hope this means that this ordeal is over and that I can get on with my life," Locy said. "I am pleased that Dr. Hatfill's lawyers are now saying they no longer need my testimony, but I don't know if my appeal is moot or if the contempt order against me will be lifted because I don't have anything at this point from the Court of Appeals or Judge Walton that says I'm in the clear."

Attorneys for Locy said she had no money to pay the fines imposed by U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton. Locy, a former reporter with The Associated Press and other news organizations, now teaches journalism at West Virginia University.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Exclusive: No ice at the North PolePolar scientists reveal dramatic new evidence of climate changeBy Steve Connor, Science EditorFriday, 27 June 2008

It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course to disappear entirely from the North Pole this year.

The disappearance of the Arctic sea ice, making it possible to reach the Pole sailing in a boat through open water, would be one of the most dramatic – and worrying – examples of the impact of global warming on the planet. Scientists say the ice at 90 degrees north may well have melted away by the summer.

"From the viewpoint of science, the North Pole is just another point on the globe, but symbolically it is hugely important. There is supposed to be ice at the North Pole, not open water," said Mark Serreze of the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado.

If it happens, it raises the prospect of the Arctic nations being able to exploit the valuable oil and mineral deposits below these a bed which have until now been impossible to extract because of the thick sea ice above.

Seasoned polar scientists believe the chances of a totally ice-free North Pole this summer are greater than 50:50 because the normally thick ice formed over many years at the Pole has been blown away and replaced by huge swathes of thinner ice formed over a single year.

This one-year ice is highly vulnerable to melting during the summer months and satellite data coming in over recent weeks shows that the rate of melting is faster than last year, when there was an all-time record loss of summer sea ice at the Arctic.

"The issue is that, for the first time that I am aware of, the North Pole is covered with extensive first-year ice – ice that formed last autumn and winter. I'd say it's even-odds whether the North Pole melts out," said Dr Serreze.

Each summer the sea ice melts before reforming again during the long Arctic winter but the loss of sea ice last year was so extensive that much of the Arctic Ocean became open water, with the water-ice boundary coming just 700 miles away from the North Pole.

This meant that about 70 per cent of the sea ice present this spring was single-year ice formed over last winter. Scientists predict that at least 70 per cent of this single-year ice – and perhaps all of it – will melt completely this summer, Dr Serreze said.

"Indeed, for the Arctic as a whole, the melt season started with even more thin ice than in 2007, hence concerns that we may even beat last year's sea-ice minimum. We'll see what happens, a great deal depends on the weather patterns in July and August," he said.

Ron Lindsay, a polar scientist at the University of Washington in Seattle, agreed that much now depends on what happens to the Arctic weather in terms of wind patterns and hours of sunshine. "There's a good chance that it will all melt away at the North Pole, it's certainly feasible, but it's not guaranteed," Dr Lindsay said.

The polar regions are experiencing the most dramatic increase in average temperatures due to global warming and scientists fear that as more sea ice is lost, the darker, open ocean will absorb more heat and raise local temperatures even further. Professor Peter Wadhams of Cambridge University, who was one of the first civilian scientists to sail underneath the Arctic sea ice in a Royal Navy submarine, said that the conditions are ripe for an unprecedented melting of the ice at the North Pole.

"Last year we saw huge areas of the ocean open up, which has never been experienced before. People are expecting this to continue this year and it is likely to extend over the North Pole. It is quite likely that the North Pole will be exposed this summer – it's not happened before," Professor Wadhams said.

There are other indications that the Arctic sea ice is showing signs of breaking up. Scientists at the Nasa Goddard Space Flight Centre said that the North Water 'polynya' – an expanse of open water surrounded on all sides by ice – that normally forms near Alaska and Banks Island off the Canadian coast, is much larger than normal. Polynyas absorb heat from the sun and eat away at the edge of the sea ice.

Inuit natives living near Baffin Bay between Canada and Greenland are also reporting that the sea ice there is starting to break up much earlier than normal and that they have seen wide cracks appearing in the ice where it normally remains stable. Satellite measurements collected over nearly 30 years show a significant decline in the extent of the Arctic sea ice, which has become more rapid in recent years.

Only one Congressman had the personal courage and the profound respect for our Constitution to stand on the floor of the House of Representatives and exercise his right and his responsibility to bring Articles of Impeachment against President George W. Bush - Ohio Representative Dennis J. Kucinich.

Now, Americans who cherish our Democracy and the Constitutional principles upon which it was founded can stand up, speak out, and take action by signing the one official petition that carries the full and unqualified support of the one and only original sponsor of the impeachment resolution: Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich.

Kucinich Petition

WHEREAS, in his conduct while President of the United States, George W. Bush, in violation of his constitutional oath to faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has committed abuses of power.

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that President George W. Bush has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and Commander in Chief, and subversive of constitutional government, to the prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States and that he be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors

“…clear Presidential crimes…”

So says Constitutional law expert Jonathan Turley in an interview with MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann about Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s 35 Articles of Impeachment against President George W. Bush – a document that Olbermann calls “a remarkably lengthy and thorough record of high crimes and misdemeanors.

http://impeachment.kucinich.us/petition/

Click this link^^ to sign now! Then, get busy calling the judiciary committee members to demand they take action, and your own Representative to demand s/he supports and/or cosponsors the impeachment bills introduced by Kucinich against both Bush AND Cheney.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain was asked Thursday his opinion of an attempt to impeach President Bush. His answer shouldn't surprise anyone.

If nothing else, the fact that a question was even asked shows that McCain's campaign doesn't do as rigorous a job as President Bush's handlers do in weeding out unfriendly questioners from town hall meetings.

"I appreciate this opportunity, Mr. McCain, to ask you a question," said a man attending the town hall meeting at Xavier University in Ohio. "Part one is in regards to the articles of impeachment brought up by Kucinich for Bush. What your stance is on that as far as manipulated intelligence to form the policy. And then the second is Professor Gatsby from Arizona was outside your office for sixteen days and didn't eat solid foods. I was wondering if you agreed to meet with him for the two hours he requested or does he have to be a corporate owner with multi-million dollars to meet with you."

The Republican senator laughed.

"I do not agree with quote 'articles of impeachment,'" McCain said, in reference to a resolution introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH).

The second question was about an Arizona professor and 9/11 conspiracy theorist who staged a hunger strike outside McCain's office requesting a meeting with the senator. McCain said the professor ended his strike although he was refused an audience.

"I did not" meet with him, McCain said. "Because I don't take well to threats."

Tuesday 24th June approx. 1400 Tony Gosling and fiancee were stopped in their vehicle on the M32 motorway in Bristol by ten police officers under the authority of the Northumbria Police Major Incident Unit.

Gosling and fiancee were held at Trinity Road police station in Bristol until 1200 the next day, 25th June. Both were heavily questioned. They were each arrested three times, a total of six arrests.

The arrests in order were, Obstructing a Recovery Order, Theft of a Credit Card and then again for Obstructing a Recovery Order.

The two later arrests were made in the police station where they were still being detained for the first arrest.

Gosling states that he gave police the key to his home address in Bristol. Officers battered his door down before proceeding to conviscate printed lists of contact details, two diaries, two mobile phones, a laptop and a desktop computer. These items are still being held at this time.

Gosling feels he was threatened with precocious charges. He states that he cooperated with police, but claims that his rights as a journalist were not respected. All the charges were dropped shortly before Gosling and his fiancee were released.

Several locations in and around Bristol associated with Gosling were also raided by police.

The police are looking for a woman called Natalie Bracht - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7419308.stm

Although Gosling states that he can not confirm that the information provided to him by Bracht is genuine, he does stress the importance of sharing her allegations.

The authorities have suggested that Bracht is suffering from mental illness and has threatened to kill her own children. Gosling and others have met with Bracht and her five daughters. They report normal behaviour between Bracht and her children - this would seemingly contradict police allegations.

It is not clear at this time, but Gosling believes they have found and arrested Bracht today.

Bracht's allegations involve operations carried out on the British mainland by Israeli intelligence agents from Mossad. In particular activities at the South Gosforth Reformed Synagogue in Newcastle.

According to Bracht she has been on the run from her home in Sunderland since Libyan intelligence officers warned her that the authorities were going to arrest her and place her children in care. The Libyan agents told Bracht that her father was Moshe Baton (spelling tbc) an Israeli British intelligence officer who defected to Libya.

She believes that Mossad helped to carry out the July 7th bombings and that no Muslims are to blame.

'Sweeping new policies set to be introduced in the UK will mandate parents to get government permission to kiss their children or take them to the swimming pool in public, measures that are "poisoning" relationships between the generations, according to respected sociologist Professor Frank Furedi. A quarter of the entire adult population of the United Kingdom will be mandated to pass a state check operated by a newly formed government agency to have any physical contact with children under the age of 16 in public - including their own kids.'

Friday, June 27, 2008

A Bush administration program to expand domestic use of Pentagon spy satellites has aroused new concerns in Congress about possible civil-liberties abuses.

On Tuesday, the House Appropriations Committee approved an amendment denying money for the new domestic intelligence operation—cryptically named the "National Applications Office"—until the Homeland Security secretary certifies that any programs undertaken by the center will "comply with all existing laws, including all applicable privacy and civil liberties standards."

Rep. Jane Harman, a California Democrat who chairs the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on intelligence, told Newsweek that majorities in both the House and Senate intend to block all funding for the domestic intelligence center at least until August, when the Government Accountability Office, an investigative agency that works for Congress, completes a report examining civil-liberties and privacy issues related to the domestic use of picture-taking spy satellites.

Harman, who was the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee when Republicans controlled Congress earlier in Bush's tenure, said she still felt burned by the president's secret expansion of domestic electronic spying after 9/11. At the time, she and other intel committee leaders were assured that the increased intelligence activity was legal, only to learn later that the basis for the new surveillance was a set of opinions by administration lawyers that are now widely considered to be legally questionable.

Because of the administration's poor handling of the electronic spying program(mainly conducted by the super-secret National Security Agency, which operates a worldwide web of electronic eavesdropping systems), Harman says she and other members of Congress will be more cautious about accepting civil-liberties assurances from administration officials. "We have to make sure this is not a back door for spying on Americans," Harman told Newsweek.

Harman said that she had discussed the administration's plans for expanding domestic use of picture-taking spy satellites—which are supposedly capable of taking very high-resolution photographs of buildings, vehicles and people—with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. According to Harman, he promised strict procedures to protect the rights of Americans, including obtaining court authorization for law enforcement-related surveillance operations where appropriate. Despite Chertoff's assurances, however, Harman said that Congress probably would not fully approve the program until the administration is more explicit about how it would operate.

Anti-war MP George Galloway has accused London Metropolitan Police of engaging in "a deliberate conspiracy to bring about scenes of violent disorder" during President George W. Bush's visit to the UK last week.

Galloway has written a letter to the Home Secretary in which he names a senior police officer thought to have been operating as an undercover "agent provocateur".

The Respect Party MP details incitements that the officer made towards police and how the man encouraged other protesters to charge baton-wielding officers and hurl projectiles at them.

Galloway cites an article from last Weekend's Mail On Sunday in which author Yasmin Whittaker-Khan detailed how she bumped into a known senior police officer, dressed like a press photographer with a large expensive camera, who shouted “Pigs out!” and enticed others to the front of the police-protestor clashes.

Here is MP George Galloway's letter in full:

To Rt Hon Jacqui Smith

Home Secretary

Urgent

Dear Home Secretary,

As you may be aware I wrote to Sir Ian Blair and Mayor Johnson calling for an inquiry into the policing of the demonstration against George W Bush on Sunday 15 June in Parliament Square/Whitehall. I enclose a copy of my letter to him. I should say I have since been visited by Superintendent Tim Jackson and have given him an account of the basis of my original complaint.

I did tell him, however, that subsequent newspaper revelations may indicate a far more sinister involvement of the police in actual law-breaking on the demonstration which sought to provoke exactly the ugly scenes which eventually ensued.

Since my meeting with the superintendent yesterday this issue has become clearer and obliges me both as a Member of Parliament and as a close witness to these events to write to you as Home Secretary demanding a full inquiry by the government into the extraordinary events and policy decisions surrounding the policing of this demonstration.

You will be aware by now of an article in the Mail on Sunday of 22 June by Yasmin Whittaker-Khan in which she recounts her shock at meeting a man, whom she knew to be a policeman from a previous encounter, who seemed determined to bring about a confrontation between the demonstrators and the police.

This man for at least 30 minutes was stood right next to me at the front of the protest and it is inconceivable that no police photograph will confirm this. I say this because several police stills cameramen and at least one video cameraman were constantly filming.

I can now confirm that this man was Chris Dreyfus, an inspector in the police.

This man, to my direct knowledge, committed four criminal offences during the 30 minutes or so he stood next to me. First, he repeatedly chanted the arcane, antiquated Americana, “Kill the pigs!” This is a clear incitement to violence, indeed murder. If a Muslim demonstrator had been chanting it, say, outside the Danish Embassy, he would likely now be in prison. Secondly, he repeatedly (crushing me in the process) attempted to charge the crush barriers and the police line behind them. Thirdly, he repeatedly exhorted others so to do. Fourthly, he instructed a young demonstrator on the correct way to uncouple a crush barrier, which was successfully achieved and was subsequently thrown at the police, and was presumably one of the justifications for the deployment of a riot squad which eventually waded in to the protesters.

Home Secretary, there can hardly a more grave indictment of the conduct of the police force in a democratic country than this. People in the labour movement have often mythologised the state’s use of agents provocateurs throughout my 40 years experience and no doubt long before. But, to my recollection, we have never caught one red-handed before.

This inspector’s criminal actions must place all the other in themselves legitimate complaints about police tactics in a new light. I wrote to Sir Ian – and to Mayor Johnson – questioning the competence of the policing on that day. It now seems that what happened was a deliberate conspiracy to bring about scenes of violent disorder, seen around the world and for purposes on which we can only speculate.

You, however, have clear responsibility to get to the heart of this matter. I do hope you will begin to do so without delay. In any case,

Yours sincerely,

George Galloway MP

In addition to this information, other demonstrators have described similar incidents with strange looking protesters.

Following Galloway's correspondence with Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair complaining about the policing of last Sunday's Stop the War demonstration in Whitehall, the Respect MP will also be meeting, early next week, a senior Met officer who has been charged with investigating the complaint.

The protest was intended to take place outside the entrance to Downing Street, however, a police ban on entering Whitehall was imposed on the recommendation of Bush and his advisors.

Demonstrators included members of the Stop War Coalition, CND and the British Muslim Initiative.

The rally began with speeches from MP Tony Benn, Bianca Jagger and George Galloway, but soon turned violent as police made 25 arrests in Parliament Square after some of the 2,500 protestors attempted to breach the police blockades.

Several protesters were kept in custody and were later charged with offences including affray, violent disorder, assaulting police and possession of an offensive weapon.

Police described the protests as "unlawful" and "deplorable", however, protestors claimed heavy-handed policing was entirely to blame for the violence.

Suzanna Wylie, 29, from London, was left bleeding from a head injury.

She said: 'We were standing near the front, the police shouted at us to move back, we tried but couldn't and they started hitting people on the heads with their truncheons.

'It was frightening. I somehow got hit.

'I was caught between the police in front of me and people behind me who were throwing things at the police.'

And protester Mary Robin, 61, said: 'There is never trouble at these things, but there were so many police officers it was like a war zone on our streets.'

There was a very heavy security presence at the protest including riot police, armed officers, and even snipers on rooftops. An Evening Standard report from the previous Friday also detailed how a Met spokeswoman stated that a “large amount of covert work” would be going on around the Bush Downing Street visit.

The 2005 Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (SOCPA) banned unauthorised protest within a kilometre of the Houses of Parliament. Since that time, “SOCPA zones” have been initiated in locations throughout the country.

Watch video of the riot police in action on the streets of London last week:

It has been common practice at previous demonstrations for authorities to employ police or special forces to intentionally infiltrate peaceful protests and cause violence.

Last year peaceful protestors at the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) summit in Montebello captured sensational video of hired agent provocateurs attempting to incite rioting and turn the protest violent, only to encounter brave resistance from real protest leaders.

Quebec provincial police later admitted that their officers disguised themselves as demonstrators during the protest at the North American leaders summit in Montebello, Que.

In Seattle in 1999 at the World Trade Organisation meeting, the authorities declared a state of emergency, imposed curfews and resorted to nothing short of police state tactics in response to a small minority of hostile black bloc hooligans. In his film Police State 2, Alex Jones covered the fact that the police allowed the black bloc to run riot in downtown Seattle while they concentrated on preventing the movement of peaceful protestors. The film presents evidence that the left-wing anarchist groups are actually controlled by the state and used to demonize peaceful protesters.

At WTO protests in Genoa 2001 a protestor was killed after being shot in the head and run over twice by a police vehicle. The Italian Carabinere also later beat on peaceful protestors as they slept, and even tortured some, at the Diaz School. It later emerged that the police fabricated evidence against the protesters, claiming they were anarchist rioters, to justify their actions. Some Carabiniere officials have since come forward to say they knew of infiltration of the black bloc anarchists, that fellow officers acted as agent provocateurs.

At the Free Trade Area of Americas protests in Miami in late November 2003, more provocateuring was evident. The United Steelworkers of America, calling for a congressional investigation, stated that the police intentionally caused violence and arrested and charged hundreds of peaceful protestors. The USWA suggested that billions of dollars supposedly slated for Iraq reconstruction funds are actually being used to subsidize ‘homeland repression’ in America.

CCTV cameras which use artificial intelligence software are being developed to "hear" sounds like windows smashing, researchers have revealed.

University of Portsmouth scientists are working on adapting the software so it can also react to crowd noise.

Crimes would be captured on camera faster and response times improved.

The news comes after the BBC learned councils in southern England routinely used powers brought in to fight terrorism and crime to spy on people.

Figures obtained by BBC South showed the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) was used more than 750 times by the councils in 2007/08.

The new three-year surveillance study is being funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

The existing software is sophisticated enough to identify minor visual cues such as whether a car aerial is up or more complex activity such as violent behaviour, researchers said.

Dr David Brown, from the University of Portsmouth, said: "The visual-recognition software will be able to identify visual patterns but for the next stage we want to get the camera to pivot if it hears a certain type of sound.

"So, if in a car park someone smashes a window, the camera would turn to look at them and the camera operator would be alerted.

'Read' profiles

"The longer artificial intelligence is in the software the more it learns."

He added: "Later versions will get cleverer as time goes on, perhaps eventually being able to identify specific words being said or violent sounds.

"In identifying sound we are looking for the shapes of sound.

"In the same way, if you close your eyes, you can trace the shape of a physical object and 'read' its profile with your hand, we are developing shapes of sound so the software recognises them."

By the end of the study, the researchers hope to have generated algorithms - a mathematical formula for solving problems - that can be used inside existing CCTV software.

Then each successive generation of algorithms would become more sophisticated as they "learn" what they are looking and listening out for.

BEIJING (AFP) — A Chinese company has developed a prototype flying saucer that can hover in the air and be controlled remotely from afar, state press said Tuesday.

The aircraft is 1.2 metres (four feet) in diameter and is able to take off and land vertically and hover at an altitude of up to 1,000 metres (yards), Xinhua news agency said.

The unmanned disc is driven by a propeller and can be controlled remotely or sent on a preset flight path, it said.

Its top speed is 80 kilometres (50 miles) per hour, it added.

It took the Harbin Smart Special Aerocraft Co Ltd 12 years and 28 million yuan (4.1 million dollars) to develop the prototype craft, which is designed for aerial photography, geological surveys and emergency lighting, the report said.

These outside block parties were beginning to come together as an all-round spectacle, where the first DJ battles took places bringing together local titans. Afrika Bambaataa and his Zulu Nation would crash Herc's events to put their under-developed talents to the test against Grandmaster Flash and Herc. The famous Herculoids sound system was put into effect to shut down these brazen up ‘n comers. Jazzy Jay from The Zulu Nation recalls:Herc was late setting up and Bam continued to play longer than he should have. Once Herc was set up he got on the microphone and said "Bambaataa, could you please turn your system down?" Bam's crew was pumped and told Bam not to do it. So Herc said louder, "Yo, Bambaataa, turn your system down-down-down." Bam's crew started cursing Herc until Herc put the full weight of his system up and said, "Bambaataa-baataa-baataa, TURN YOUR SYSTEM DOWN!" And you couldn't even hear Bam's set at all. The Zulu crew tried to turn up the juice but it was no use. Everybody just looked at them like, "You should've listened to Kool Herc"

Young Flash was also victimised by the might of the Herculoids upon his challenges. He would take his techniques up to the Hevalo club to battle Herc but he would always embarrass Flash by cutting out the highs and low of the sound system, leaving only the midrange. Then after calling out Flash's amateur technique, crank up the highs to sizzle through the crowd, then the booming bass, vibrating straight to the bones of everybody in the house. Flash was always swallowed by Herc's performances. He nevertheless learned a lot from Herc and waited his turn to hold the crown. Raised in the Fort Apache section of Boogie-Down on Fox and 163rd street, he was of Bajan Barbadian decent, Jospeh Saddler was deeply amerced in the birthing culture of hip-hop music. The funk, soul and reggae-rooted soundscape of his neighbourhood provided him with the inspiration and love of music. He developed a strong bond with vinyl as a boy playing with his father’s reggae records. By the time he was a teenager he was a true scholar of electronics and engineering at school and putting it into practise with spinning records in his own unique format, performing public block parties in his neighbourhood. He idolized the work of local DJs Kool Herc and Pete Jones and studied their turntablism, Flash elevated his techniques and aspired to take this DJing format to another level of creation. He would rearrange recorded song structure, extending the break sections by using duplicate copies of the one record and going from one turntable to the next to continue the flow of the one particular section. He would physically manipulate his wrists and elbow back and forth while holding his finger down on the edge of the record, a discovery made by associate, Grand Wizzard Theodore Livingstone. By ’71 he was inventing methods and concepts he called ‘The Quick Mix Theory’ which encompassed the technique of ‘Cutting’ which was later refined to ‘Scratching’ as well as ‘Crab Scratching’, ‘Transforming’, ‘Flaring’, ‘Doubleback’, ‘Backspinning’ and ‘Phasing’. He created an element of scientific approach to the art form. Lastly the ‘Clock Theory’ was established which was a technique in finding the exact spot on the record where the break was, using the naked eye rather than listening through headphones to find it. He would mark the spot with crayon and continually hit the right spot each time. Nowadays DJ turntables are complete with so many buttons to alleviate this raw practise. Clearly Flash had become the master of this and one to revolutionize DJing.

When Flash first kicked off his elementary career in 1975 at his first park performance he staggered on stage, his new flashy techniques on the decks fell flat to the crowd of hundreds. Despite this he dusted himself off and continued to explore the engineering of turntables and began performing with his homeboy. Mean Gene – one of three brothers called The Livingstone Brothers with Cordeo and Grand Wizzard Theodore (who would later become an innovator of DJing himself.) Through the early years they were kids enjoying the birth of this new era, having a good time as a dance click at Kool Herc’s Sedgwick Ave. rec. room parties. He would DJ for later recording star, Kurtis Blow and later he would hook up with local Spades member, Keith 'Cowboy' Wiggins (R.I.P.) who acted as his MC hyping crowds, spurting, “Throw your hands in the air and wave 'em like ya just don't care!” The pair linked with two other locals at Flash's jams, the Glover brothers, Melvin 'Melle Mel' and Nathaniel 'Kid Creole' who formed a unique group of emcees interlacing their raps over each other, finishing each others verses over Flash's wheels of steel. By 1976 they took their act to local clubs, Back Door and Dixie where they recruited the muscle of the Casanova Crew for backup. Flash's crew built up, renaming them from Grandmaster Flash and the Three MCs to the Furious Four adding Rahiem, (Guy Todd Williams) and then, Furious 5 with Scorpio AKA, Mr. Ness, (Eddie Morris). They would later be made famous with their break performing at Disco Fever in The Bronx. They remained rocking the park jams stretching from St. Ann's, Mitchell, 63 Park and 23 Park. The scene was blowing up from all sides focusing now more on the showmanship of the event than the speaker system and it's volume. In this era, Kool Herc was losing his crowd to Flash's more complete show and refined DJ handling. Flash would enthral the crowds with his fresh bag of tricks, elbow scratching, flipping round, cutting and cross-fading with various body parts. He would introduce his protege, Grand Wizzard Theodore, a thirteen year old who invented the scratch accidentally while pausing the record on the turntable in his bedroom to hear his mother yelling at him. Inadvertently slipping his finger back and forth scratching the needle on the record. He was also renowned for having the technique of dropping the needle right onto the spinning backbeat. The compete show Flash brought to the table was now the latest benchmark to beat for all other DJs. Soon after DJs were forced to enlist rapping groups to hold the audience captive while the DJ spun records behind the emcees. By 1977 the DJ took a back seat in hip-hop while the MC took the wheel and steered us all into a new direction. Bring on Busy Bee Starski, Kurtis Blow, the Cold Crush Brothers and the Furious Five into the fold. The climate of hip-hop had changed forever.

Originally The DJ always carried top billin’ at shows, and the MC was his sidekick. Until a cat named The Original Chief Rocker Busy Bee Starski, the backbone of the microphone, (David Parker) took the stage and shone brighter than any DJ with his performance. From $20 a night help to the DJ to the forefront of hip hop iconic stature. Busy Bee Starski was a member of Afrika Bambaataa’s Zulu Nation when he earned his legendary emcee reputation as he became the now club-culture's first solo MC with a sharpened lyrical flair. He would rock the mic for Disco King Mario's sets, his shout-outs were second to none. He performed his best routines alongside Cool DJ AJ (later DJ for well-known MC Kurtis Blow) Busy Bee became a heavyweight Emcee pioneering the early battles. Most notable was against the king-hitter Kool Moe Dee. Thousands of copies of this battle continue to circulate on the streets over 20 years on. His spoken word drew enormous crowds. Although busy Bee would never make success through the recording industry, he stood as a breakthrough MC introducing the last of four elements into hip-hop, forever the DJ would remain behind the rapper on-stage in support. Busy Bee would inspire a new generation of super stars to follow behind him, each artist delivering a more polished and poetic rhyme than the last. One of the early legends at this would be the Casanova Fly.Bronx native, Curtis 'Grandmaster Caz' Fischer wanted nothing more than to be a DJ after seeing Kool Herc's show one cool summer evening in 1974. He brought all the equipment and teamed up with another aspiring talent, his best friend DJ Disco Wiz (Luis Cedeno). Later he teamed with JDL (Jerry Dee Lewis) who became The Notorious Two. Caz, also known as Casanova Fly became the first DJ to incorporate rhymes into his repertoire. By '79 after the turn of the MC, DJ Charlie Chase (Carlos Mandes) from The Cold Crush Brothers asked Caz to help audition MCs for his group. This was a cover for Charlie Chase to lure Caz into joining the super group, Cold Crush Brothers. The original group consisted of the founder, Original DJ Tony Tone, Easy A.D., DJ Charlie Chase, Mr. Tee, Whipper Whip and Dot-A-Rock. The Cold Crush Brothers had gained a reputation for their multi-skilled thematic routines in the game, featuring three MCs rapping simultaneously while two DJs worked the turntables. They began to attract so much attention that various crews queued to battle them. Caz was quoted as saying once,

"It's like I don't care if God, Moses, Abraham, and Jesus, come down here to battle us, we bustin' they ass."Grandmaster Caz later became known as the Captain of the Cold Crush. He had been recognised for his formidable lyrical talents. He taught the fundamentals of rhyming, structuring and formatting to fellow rappers, Whipper Whip (James Whipper) and Dot-A-Roc (Darryl Mason) before they eventually left to join The Fantastic Five. He also came up with about the deafest rhyme going around at the time and now a classic called “Dear Yvette.” Sugar Hill records founder, Sylvia Robinson had over-heard night club bouncer and group manager of the Cold Crush Brothers Henry ‘Big Bank Hank’ Jackson rapping to a tape of Grandmaster Caz while working at a local Pizzeria. He was invited to be the third member of a group she was putting together called The Sugar Hill Gang. Hank accepted, but since he wasn’t an accomplished MC he went to Grandmaster Caz and asked to borrow his book of rhymes. Caz handed them over, no questions asked. When Hank would use the lyrics for “Rapper’s Delight” (which became a huge successful hit in 1979 selling two million copies, the first hip-hop single to land in the Top 40 charts and the first time the term ‘rapper’ was used to describe a person rhyming to a beat on the microphone) Caz figured Hank could hook him and the Cold Crush Brothers onto the Label. Caz would never receive the credit or compensation for the rhymes he contributed. The Sugar Hill Gang would later be acclaimed as hip-hop's first standard for the recording industry. A definitive new direction for the culture toward the path hip-hop has taken today as it sits in popular culture.

The Cold Crush Brothers were later well covered on the film, 'Wild Style' battling against Grand Wizzard Theodore and the Fantastic Five while playing a basketball game. They also went against each other on the battle tape, 'Live at Harlem World 1981'. Also that year they toured with Wild Style to Japan and became the first group to sign with CBS recording label, Tuff City Records. They never released a full length album, but on 'Live in 82' Cold Crush is shown performing on-stage. The most memorable quote from the album remains today as a sign of the times before the industry took over the art. "Ya'll gotta excuse us, we can't bounce as much as we want to cause if we bounce too much the record'll jump." - That's hip-hop! At the height of their game, they were the dopest crew out there, the cultural standard for any emcee coming through. As new standards were being set, the recording industry would take a wider view on hip-hop's marketability. Solo artist, Kurtis Blow would become public poster boy for rap.

Former native Harlem b-boy, Kurtis Blow from outside the Mecca Bronx,was a towering figure in the roots of hip-hop and is considered to be the breakthrough artist of mainstream media. His good looks and talented charisma captivated big wigs of industry. Inspired by fellow performer, DJ Hollywood's rapping performances, by 1979 Blow had recorded the 12-inch single, “Christmas Rappin” with Mercury. This was the first major label hip-hop release. His second single was, "The Breaks" which reached the top five of Billboard's R&B charts when released right after the Sugar Hill Gang's breakthrough hit, “Rapper's Delight”. He would later become the first hip-hop talent to record a full-length album, and cultural trailblazer as he introduced the world to the small, defining culture of hip-hop as a music. Other recording labels such as Enjoy, Sugar Hill and Tuff City soon saw the potential of hip-hop and tapped into it's talented beehive bringing many to sweet success. This segued to the legendary releases of Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel's well-heard, Message!

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five would become part of the recording fraternity by the turn of the eighties closing the underground culture and offering up hip-hop to public spectacle. The group recorded the single, "We Rap More Mellow" on Brass Records under the name, The Younger Generation. Under the name of Flash and The Five they released a live version of "Flash To The Beat" on Bozo Meko Records before they settled at Sylvia Robinson's Sugar Hill Records and scored with a hit on on the R&B charts a year later with, “Freedom” and “Birthday Party”. By 1982 “The Message” became an explosive, ground-breaking hit, a rap classic. Premier emcee, Melle Mel, the original G.O.A.T. was responsible for most social commentary lyrical content on the cutting edge track. This harsh, descriptive reality into life within the ghetto set the pace for what was referred to later as 'reality rap' or the unfavoured media term, 'gangsta rap'. This was a monumental turn in direction for trend of subject matter for most rap music today. Kool Moe Dee and his Treacherous Three soon followed behind the Furious Five in 1981 into Sugar Hill Records, recording “Feel the Heart Beat” and “Whip It”. One of their live recordings with The Funky Four plus One appeared on the long playing 12-inch, Live Convention '81 (Disco Wax) and were later featured in hip-hop docu-film, 'Beat Street' performing, “Christmas Rap” with rising star, Doug E. Fresh. Kool Moe Dee and Special K co-hosted a short lived television show called Graffiti Rock in '84 in which they battled Run DMC and performed the segue into commercials.

Flash broke through with some triumph, Afrika Bambaataa dabbled as he laid down various cross-genre recordings with pop artists through the eighties, even Kool Herc attempted the new platform of hip-hop, but to little success. The three kings of hip-hop would remain the forefathers of a movement, remaining on the grind as professional DJs and forever Gods and the real essence of hip-hop's entity. Other groups, solo artists repping other boroughs of New York, such as Queens jumped head-first into the game, as the Juice Crew, LL Cool J and recording giants, Run DMC would show the strength of their own belonging in hip-hop. Of course the Planet Rock Bronx super force saw fit to throw-down and show them who the originals were, but through adversary and the Roxanne Wars, they showed that hip-hop was not exclusive to the Boogie-Down seven-mile radius. Queens super-producer Marley Marl's, Mr Magic's Rap Attack Friday and Saturday night shows on WBLS radio station would promote this new line of music through the early eighties, giving strength to the birth of rap music in popular culture for today's mainstream entertainment and the recording industry.

The recording industry have furthered hip-hop greater and faster than any other vehicle in it's short history. Acts like Whodini, Juice Crew, Run DMC and The Beastie Boys took rapping to yet another level and with great minds like Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons with their Def Jam imprint of commercialism allowing standards of the industry to seem limitless and economically paint the American dream. The emcee grasped the reigns of hip-hop firmly and opened doors to the global colossus. The cultivation from a neighbourhood park jam into today's most influential artistic achievement in popular culture took over like a juggernaut. Some argue that traditional hip-hop of social and politically-conscious topics have been pushed aside by mainstream media outlets in favour of it's bastard-child, gangsta rap. Today this industry is a cross-marketing giant worth billions of dollars from music sales to clothing brands, multimedia ventures, even vitamin water. An environment where one's recording name is stamped on any saleable commodity based on the overwhelming trend of hip-hop as a household name. Today, this is hip-hop. But it will always be more than that.

It's the way you walk, the way you talk. It's about being real. it is a way out, a state of mind and above all an art form of self-expression. Hip-hop thrives as a culture, a music industry and lifestyle for the global community who support it. Although most will agree, the four elements are no longer necessarily prevalent in today's description of hip-hop, it allowed the culture to blossom into a worldwide celebrated phenomenon. Some thirty years later, a young teenager grows up with the freedom of self-expression pushed to endless boundaries thanks to the visionaries who fought and endured the hardships of exploring hip-hop to where it stands today, and forever.

UNITED NATIONS, June 26 -- Afghan opium poppy cultivation grew 17 percent last year, continuing a six-year expansion of the country's drug trade and increasing its share of global opium production to more than 92 percent, according to the 2008 World Drug Report, released Thursday by the United Nations.

Afghanistan's emergence as the world's largest supplier of opium and heroin represents a serious setback to U.S. policy in the region. The opium trade has soared since the U.S.-led 2001 overthrow of the Taliban, which had eradicated almost all of the country's opium poppies. The proceeds from the illicit trade are helping finance a resurgent Taliban that is battling U.S. and allied troops.

The Taliban earned $200 million to $400 million last year through a 10 percent tax on poppy growers and drug traffickers in areas under its control, Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime, said in an interview. He estimates that Afghan poppy farmers and drug traffickers last year earned about $4 billion, half of the country's national income.

Afghanistan's high-yielding variety of opium poppies has helped double global opium production since 2005. With production far outpacing world demand, U.N. anti-drug officials and government intelligence agencies worry about massive stockpiling of the drug. "There will be two or three thousand tons of extra supply this year," Costa said.

The Bush administration cited U.N. data suggesting that opium production will fall slightly this year in Afghanistan but acknowledged the scope of the problem. "The drug threat in Afghanistan remains unacceptably high and requires a long-term commitment by both the Afghan government and international donors," said Susan Pittman, spokeswoman for the State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement.

However, the administration also said the U.N. report confirms its view that international efforts to contain the use of illicit drugs are succeeding, including in the United States, where drug consumption has dropped over the past decade.

The 309-page report tracks a surge in marijuana production in Afghanistan and an increase in cocaine production in Bolivia, Peru and Colombia. The United Nations noted new hubs for transshipment and drug use -- including Saudi Arabia, which in 2006 led the world in seizures of amphetamines.

Some 26 million people worldwide are addicted to drugs, the report said, and about 5 percent had used an illicit drug in the 12 months preceding the study. Illicit drugs account for about 200,000 deaths per year, a small fraction of the nearly 5 million annual deaths from tobacco.

Drug consumption in the United States, meanwhile, continued a "very significant" reduction, Costa said. Among the findings was a 19 percent drop over the past decade in the number of U.S. workers who tested positive for cocaine use.

"The U.S. has always been characterized by very high levels of drug addiction," Costa said. But in the past five years, "we have noted a perceptible decrease, especially among the younger population, aged 16 to 22," he said. "The country is doing something right."

Thursday, June 26, 2008

SUICIDES ‘LINKED TO PHONE MASTS’ There are thousands of masts in Britain Sunday June 22,2008 By Lucy Johnston

THE spate of deaths among young people in Britain’s suicide capital could be linked to radio waves from dozens of mobile phone transmitter masts near the victims’ homes.

Dr Roger Coghill, who sits on a Government advisory committee on mobile radiation, has discovered that all 22 youngsters who have killed themselves in Bridgend, South Wales, over the past 18 months lived far closer than average to a mast.

He has examined worldwide studies linking proximity of masts to depression. Dr Coghill’s work is likely to trigger alarm and lead to closer scrutiny of the safety of masts, which are frequently sited on public buildings such as schools and hospitals.

It is also likely to fuel more campaigns against placing masts close to public places on health grounds.

Dr Coghill said last night there was strong circumstantial evidence that the masts may have triggered depression in those from Bridgend who took their lives.

They include Kelly Stephenson, 20, who hanged herself from a shower rail in February this year while on holiday in Folkestone, Kent.

Dr Coghill said: “There is a body of research that has over the years pointed to the fact that exposure to mobile radiation can lead to depression. There is evidence of higher suicide rates where people live near any electrical equipment that gives off radio or electrical waves.”

There are now 70 million mobile phone handsets in the UK and around 50,000 masts. Both emit radio signals and electromagnetic fields that can penetrate the brain, and for many years campaigners have argued that this could seriously damage people’s health.

The national average for proximity to a mobile phone transmitter varies depending on the type of mast. The latest masts are far more powerful so they can transmit more sophisticated data, such as photos and videos for people to download on internet phones.

Masts are placed on average 800 metres away from each home across the country. In Bridgend the victims lived on average only 356 metres away.

The national average distance from a new powerful mast is a kilometre while in Bridgend it is 540 metres. Three transmitters were within 200 metres, 13 within 400 metres and as many as 22 within 500 metres of victims’ homes. Carwyn Jones, 28, who hanged himself last week, was the third young person in his street to commit suicide.

Research shows young people’s brains are more susceptible to radio wave energy. Only two weeks ago a report identified mobiles as having an effect on sleep patterns.

Dr Coghill added: “What seems to be happening is that the electrical energy is having an effect on the chemistry of the brain, depleting serotonin levels. We know that in depression serotonin levels are low and that a standard treatment for depression is to give drugs to boost serotonin levels. As they begin to work, the patient’s depression lifts.”

He said urgent research was needed because Britain was now covered with thousands of masts, many close to homes, schools and offices.

Since January 5, 2007, there have been 22 deaths of young people in the Bridgend area. Some believe the suicides are linked but so far experts have failed to find a common cause.

Thomas Davies, 20, hanged himself in February 2007. Last night his brother Nathan,19welcomed Dr Coghill’s research. “As far as this family is concerned nothing can bring Tom back,” he said. “But if there is a link found and something can be done then it could prevent further suicides.”

But Mike Dolan, executive director of the Mobile Operators Association, dismissed Dr Coghill’s research. “This is an insensitive and outrageous piece of speculation which has no basis in established science,” he said.

The Government’s Health Protection Agency insisted that fields from mobile masts – even modern powerful masts – were well within international agreed safety limits. “There is no evidence that masts do you harm. The levels of radio waves are very low."

State-Sponsored Terror: British and American Black Ops in Iraqby Andrew G. MarshallGlobal Research, June 25, 2008

Shining Light on the "Black World"

In January of 2002, the Washington Post ran a story detailing a CIA plan put forward to President Bush shortly after 9/11 by CIA Director George Tenet titled, "Worldwide Attack Matrix," which was "outlining a clandestine anti-terror campaign in 80 countries around the world. What he was ready to propose represented a striking and risky departure for U.S. policy and would give the CIA the broadest and most lethal authority in its history." The plan entailed CIA and Special Forces "covert operations across the globe," and at "the heart of the proposal was a recommendation that the president give the CIA what Tenet labeled "exceptional authorities" to attack and destroy al Qaeda in Afghanistan and the rest of the world." Tenet cited the need for such authority "to allow the agency to operate without restraint -- and he wanted encouragement from the president to take risks." Among the many authorities recommended was the use of "deadly force."

Further, "Another proposal was that the CIA increase liaison work with key foreign intelligence services," as "Using such intelligence services as surrogates could triple or quadruple the CIA's effectiveness." The Worldwide Attack Matrix "described covert operations in 80 countries that were either underway or that he was now recommending. The actions ranged from routine propaganda to lethal covert action in preparation for military attacks," as well as "In some countries, CIA teams would break into facilities to obtain information."[1]

P2OG: "Commit terror, to incite terror… in order to react to terror"

In 2002, the Pentagon’s Defense Science Board (DSB) conducted a "Summer Study on Special Operations and Joint Forces in Support of Countering Terrorism," portions of which were leaked to the Federation of American Scientists. According to the document, the "War on Terror" constitutes a "committed, resourceful and globally dispersed adversary with strategic reach," which will require the US to engage in a "long, at times violent, and borderless war." As the Asia Times described it, this document lays out a blueprint for the US to "fight fire with fire." Many of the "proposals appear to push the military into territory that traditionally has been the domain of the CIA, raising questions about whether such missions would be subject to the same legal restraints imposed on CIA activities." According to the Chairman of the DSB, "The CIA executes the plans but they use Department of Defense assets."

Specifically, the plan "recommends the creation of a super-Intelligence Support Activity, an organization it dubs the Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group (P2OG), to bring together CIA and military covert action, information warfare, intelligence and cover and deception. For example, the Pentagon and CIA would work together to increase human intelligence (HUMINT) forward/operational presence and to deploy new clandestine technical capabilities." The purpose of P2OG would be in "‘stimulating reactions’ among terrorists and states possessing weapons of mass destruction, meaning it would prod terrorist cells into action, thus exposing them to ‘quick-response’ attacks by US forces."[2] In other words, commit terror to incite terror, in order to react to terror.

The Los Angeles Times reported in 2002 that, "The Defense Department is building up an elite secret army with resources stretching across the full spectrum of covert capabilities. New organizations are being created. The missions of existing units are being revised," and quoted then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as saying, "Prevention and preemption are ... the only defense against terrorism."[3] Chris Floyd bluntly described P2OG in CounterPunch, saying, "the United States government is planning to use "cover and deception" and secret military operations to provoke murderous terrorist attacks on innocent people. Let's say it again: Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, George W. Bush and the other members of the unelected regime in Washington plan to deliberately foment the murder of innocent people--your family, your friends, your lovers, you--in order to further their geopolitical ambitions."[4]

"The Troubles" with Iraq

On February 5, 2007, the Telegraph reported that, "Deep inside the heart of the "Green Zone" [in Iraq], the heavily fortified administrative compound in Baghdad, lies one of the most carefully guarded secrets of the war in Iraq. It is a cell from a small and anonymous British Army unit that goes by the deliberately meaningless name of the Joint Support Group (JSG)." The members of the JSG "are trained to turn hardened terrorists into coalition spies using methods developed on the mean streets of Ulster during the Troubles, when the Army managed to infiltrate the IRA at almost every level. Since war broke out in Iraq in 2003, they have been responsible for running dozens of Iraqi double agents." They have been "[w]orking alongside the Special Air Service [SAS] and the American Delta Force as part of the Baghdad-based counter-terrorist unit known as Task Force Black."

It was reported that, "During the Troubles [in Northern Ireland], the JSG operated under the cover name of the Force Research Unit (FRU), which between the early 1980s and the late 1990s managed to penetrate the very heart of the IRA. By targeting and then "turning" members of the paramilitary organisation with a variety of "inducements" ranging from blackmail to bribes, the FRU operators developed agents at virtually every command level within the IRA." Further, "The unit was renamed following the Stevens Inquiry into allegations of collusion between the security forces and protestant paramilitary groups, and, until relatively recently continued to work exclusively in Northern Ireland."[5]

Considering that this group had been renamed after revelations of collusion with terrorists, perhaps it is important to take a look at what exactly this "collusion" consisted of. The Stevens Inquiry’s report "contains devastating confirmation that intelligence officers of the British police and the military actively helped Protestant guerillas to identify and kill Catholic activists in Northern Ireland during the 1980s." It was, "a state policy sanctioned at the highest level." The Inquiry, "highlighted collusion, the willful failure to keep records, the absence of accountability, the withholding of intelligence, and the extreme of agents being involved in murder," and acknowledged "that innocent people had died because of the collusion." These particular "charges relate to activities of a British Army intelligence outfit known as the Force Research Unit (FRU) and former Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) police officers."[6]

In 2002, the Sunday Herald reported on the allegations made by a former British intelligence agent, Kevin Fulton, who stated that, "he was told by his military handlers that his collusion with paramilitaries was sanctioned by Margaret Thatcher herself." Fulton worked for the Force Research Unit (FRU), and had infiltrated the IRA, always while on the pay roll of the military. Fulton tells of how in 1992, he told his FRU and MI5 intelligence handlers that his IRA superior was planning to launch a mortar attack on the police, yet his handlers did nothing and the attack went forward, killing a policewoman. Fulton stated, "I broke the law seven days a week and my handlers knew that. They knew that I was making bombs and giving them to other members of the IRA and they did nothing about it. If everything I touched turned to shit then I would have been dead. The idea was that the only way to beat the enemy was to penetrate the enemy and be the enemy."[7]

In 1998, Northern Ireland experienced its "worst single terrorist atrocity," as described by the BBC, in which a car bomb went off, killing 29 people and injuring 300.[8] According to a Sunday Herald piece in 2001, "Security forces didn't intercept the Real IRA's Omagh bombing team because one of the terrorists was a British double-agent whose cover would have been blown as an informer if the operation was uncovered." Kevin Fulton had even "phoned a warning to his RUC handlers 48 hours before the Omagh bombing that the Real IRA was planning an attack and gave details of one of the bombing team and his car registration." Further, "The man thought to be the agent is a senior member of the [IRA] organization."[9]

In 2002, it was revealed that, "one of the most feared men inside the Provisional IRA," John Joe Magee, head of the IRA’s "internal security unit," commonly known as the IRA’s "torturer- in-chief," was actually "one of the UK's most elite soldiers," who "was trained as a member of Britain's special forces." The Sunday Herald stated that, "Magee led the IRA's internal security unit for more than a decade up to the mid-90s - most of those he investigated were usually executed," and that, "Magee's unit was tasked to hunt down, interrogate and execute suspected British agents within the IRA."[10]

In 2006, the Guardian reported that, "two British agents were central to the bombings of three army border installations in 1990." The claims included tactics known as the ‘human bomb’, which "involved forcing civilians to drive vehicles laden with explosives into army checkpoints." This tactic "was the brainchild of British intelligence."[11]

In 2006, it was also revealed that, "A former British Army mole in the IRA has claimed that MI5 arranged a weapons-buying trip to America in which he obtained detonators, later used by terrorists to murder soldiers and police officers," and "British intelligence co-operated with the FBI to ensure his trip to New York in the 1990s went ahead without incident so that his cover would not be blown." Further, "the technology he obtained has been used in Northern Ireland and copied by terrorists in Iraq in roadside bombs that have killed British troops."[12]

Considering all these revelations of British collusion with IRA terrorists and complicity in terrorist acts in Northern Ireland through the FRU, what evidence is there that these same tactics are not being deployed in Iraq under the renamed Joint Support Group (JSG)? The recruits to the JSG in Iraq are trained extensively and those "who eventually pass the course can expect to be posted to Baghdad, Basra and Afghanistan."[13]

P2OG in Action

In September of 2003, months after the initial invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Iraq’s most sacred Shiite mosque was blown up, killing between 80 and 120 people, including a popular Shiite cleric, and the event was blamed by Iraqis on the American forces.[14]

On April 20, 2004, American journalist in Iraq, Dahr Jamail, reported in the New Standard that, "The word on the street in Baghdad is that the cessation of suicide car bombings is proof that the CIA was behind them." Jamail interviewed a doctor who stated that, "The U.S. induces aggression. If you don't attack me, I will never attack you. The U.S. is stimulating the aggression of the Iraqi people!" This description goes very much in line with the aims outlined in the Pentagon’s P2OG document about "inciting terror," or "preempting terror attacks."[15]

Weeks after the initial incident involving the British SAS soldiers in Basra, in October of 2005, it was reported that Americans were "captured in the act of setting off a car bomb in Baghdad," as, "A number of Iraqis apprehended two Americans disguised in Arab dress as they tried to blow up a booby-trapped car in the middle of a residential area in western Baghdad on Tuesday. … Residents of western Baghdad's al-Ghazaliyah district [said] the people had apprehended the Americans as they left their Caprice car near a residential neighborhood in al-Ghazaliyah on Tuesday afternoon. Local people found they looked suspicious so they detained the men before they could get away. That was when they discovered that they were Americans and called the … police." However, "the Iraq police arrived at approximately the same time as allied military forces - and the two men were removed from Iraq custody and whisked away before any questioning could take place."[16]

It was reported that in May of 2005, an Iraqi man was arrested after witnessing a car bombing that took place in front of his home, as it was said he shot an Iraqi National Guardsman. However, "People from the area claim that the man was taken away not because he shot anyone, but because he knew too much about the bomb. Rumor has it that he saw an American patrol passing through the area and pausing at the bomb site minutes before the explosion. Soon after they drove away, the bomb went off and chaos ensued. He ran out of his house screaming to the neighbors and bystanders that the Americans had either planted the bomb or seen the bomb and done nothing about it. He was promptly taken away."

Further, another story was reported in the same month that took place in Baghdad when an Iraqi driver had his license and car confiscated at a checkpoint, after which he was instructed "to report to an American military camp near Baghdad airport for interrogation and in order to retrieve his license." After being questioned for a short while, he was told to drive his car to an Iraqi police station, where his license had been forwarded, and that he should go quickly. "The driver did leave in a hurry, but was soon alarmed with a feeling that his car was driving as if carrying a heavy load, and he also became suspicious of a low flying helicopter that kept hovering overhead, as if trailing him. He stopped the car and inspected it carefully. He found nearly 100 kilograms of explosives hidden in the back seat and along the two back doors. The only feasible explanation for this incident is that the car was indeed booby trapped by the Americans and intended for the al-Khadimiya Shiite district of Baghdad. The helicopter was monitoring his movement and witnessing the anticipated ‘hideous attack by foreign elements."[17]

On October 4, 2005, it was reported by the Sydney Morning Herald that, "The FBI's counterterrorism unit has launched a broad investigation of US-based theft rings after discovering some vehicles used in deadly car bombings in Iraq, including attacks that killed US troops and Iraqi civilians, were probably stolen in the United States, according to senior US Government officials." Further, "The inquiry began after coalition troops raided a Falluja bomb factory last November and found a Texas-registered four-wheel-drive being prepared for a bombing mission. Investigators said there were several other cases where vehicles evidently stolen in the US wound up in Syria or other Middle Eastern countries and ultimately in the hands of Iraqi insurgent groups, including al-Qaeda in Iraq."[18]

In 2006, the Al-Askariya mosque in the city of Samarra was bombed and destroyed. It was built in 944, was over 1,000 years old, and was one of the most important Shi’ite mosques in the world. The great golden dome that covered it, which was built in 1904, was destroyed in the 2006 bombing, which was set off by men dressed as Iraqi Special Forces.[19] Former 27-year CIA analyst who gave several presidents their daily CIA briefings, Ray McGovern, stated that he "does not rule out Western involvement in this week's Askariya mosque bombing." He was quoted as saying, "The main question is Qui Bono? Who benefits from this kind of thing? You don't have to be very conspiratorial or even paranoid to suggest that there are a whole bunch of likely suspects out there and not only the Sunnis. You know, the British officers were arrested, dressed up in Arab garb, riding around in a car, so this stuff goes on."[20]

Death Squads for "Freedom"

In January of 2005, Newsweek reported on a Pentagon program termed the "Salvador Option" being discussed to be deployed in Iraq. This strategy "dates back to a still-secret strategy in the Reagan administration’s battle against the leftist guerrilla insurgency in El Salvador in the early 1980s. Then, faced with a losing war against Salvadoran rebels, the U.S. government funded or supported "nationalist" forces that allegedly included so-called death squads directed to hunt down and kill rebel leaders and sympathizers." Updating the strategy to Iraq, "one Pentagon proposal would send Special Forces teams to advise, support and possibly train Iraqi squads, most likely hand-picked Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Shiite militiamen, to target Sunni insurgents and their sympathizers, even across the border into Syria, according to military insiders familiar with the discussions."[21]

The Times reported that, "the Pentagon is considering forming hit squads of Kurdish and Shia fighters to target leaders of the Iraqi insurgency in a strategic shift borrowed from the American struggle against left-wing guerrillas in Central America 20 years ago. Under the so-called ‘El Salvador option’, Iraqi and American forces would be sent to kill or kidnap insurgency leaders." It further stated, "Hit squads would be controversial and would probably be kept secret," as "The experience of the so-called "death squads" in Central America remains raw for many even now and helped to sully the image of the United States in the region." Further, "John Negroponte, the US Ambassador in Baghdad, had a front-row seat at the time as Ambassador to Honduras from 1981-85."[22]

By June of 2005, mass executions were taking place in Iraq in the six months since January, and, "What is particularly striking is that many of those killings have taken place since the Police Commandos became operationally active and often correspond with areas where they have been deployed."[23]

In May of 2007, an Iraqi who formerly collaborated with US forces in Iraq for two and a half years stated that, "I was a soldier in the Iraqi army in the war of 1991 and during the withdrawal from Kuwait I decided to seek asylum in Saudi Arabia along with dozens of others like me. That was how began the process whereby I was recruited into the American forces, for there were US military committees that chose a number of Iraqis who were willing to volunteer to join them and be transported to America. I was one of those." He spoke out about how after the 2003 invasion, he was returned to Iraq to "carry out specific tasks assigned him by the US agencies." Among those tasks, he was put "in charge of a group of a unit that carried out assassinations in the streets of Baghdad."

He was quoted as saying, "Our task was to carry out assassinations of individuals. The US occupation army would supply us with their names, pictures, and maps of their daily movements to and from their place of residence and we were supposed to kill the Shi'i, for example, in the al-A'zamiyah, and kill the Sunni in the of 'Madinat as-Sadr’, and so on." Further, "Anyone in the unit who made a mistake was killed. Three members of my team were killed by US occupation forces after they failed to assassinate Sunni political figures in Baghdad." He revealed that this "dirty jobs" unit of Iraqis, Americans and other foreigners, "doesn’t only carry out assassinations, but some of them specialize in planting bombs and car bombs in neighborhoods and markets."

He elaborated in saying that "operations of planting car bombs and blowing up explosives in markets are carried out in various ways, the best-known and most famous among the US troops is placing a bomb inside cars as they are being searched at checkpoints. Another way is to put bombs in the cars during interrogations. After the desired person is summoned to one of the US bases, a bomb is place in his car and he is asked to drive to a police station or a market for some purpose and there his car blows up."[24]

Divide and Conquer?

Craig Murray, former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, wrote in October of 2006, that, "The evidence that the US directly contributed to the creation of the current civil war in Iraq by its own secretive security strategy is compelling. Historically of course this is nothing new - divide and rule is a strategy for colonial powers that has stood the test of time. Indeed, it was used in the previous British occupation of Iraq around 85 years ago. However, maybe in the current scenario the US just over did it a bit, creating an unstoppable momentum that, while stalling the insurgency, has actually led to new problems of control and sustainability for Washington and London."[25]

Andrew G. Marshall contributed to breaking the Climate Change consensus in a celebrated 2006 article entitled Global Warming A Convenient Lie, in which he challenged the findings underlying Al Gore's documentary. According to Marshall, 'as soon as people start to state that “the debate is over”, beware, because the fundamental basis of all sciences is that debate is never over'. Andrew Marshall has also written on the militarization of Central Africa, national security issues and the process of integration of North America. He is also a contributor to GeopoliticalMonitor.com He is currently a researcher at the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) in Montreal and is studying political science and history at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia.

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